SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When he first heard mention of cockroaches alive and well in Yellowknife, a local tenant responded with disbelief and several expletives ­ until he noticed the creepy crawlers had taken up residence in his spotless kitchen at Hudson House on 48 Street.

An infestation of German cockroaches has been discovered at Hudson House in the city core.

"I said, 'cockroaches, that's bull,' I've never seen anything like that up here ­ especially in the North," said the tenant, who asked to remain anonymous while the case is being dealt with by the Department of Health and Social Services.

"Now in the morning I turn the light on and come out for coffee and toast when I get up and they are everywhere."

The man had invited a skeptical Yellowknifer reporter over to his apartment to see the insects. Sure enough, two of the bugs were viewed trapped beneath a pot lid on the counter.

"They're fast so it's kind of hard to catch them," he said, adding he often sees up to 20 at a time.

"That's not the ones I don't even see. But now I'm watching, and they scurry, holy they can move fast."

Reaching out to his neighbours at Hudson House, he discovered many of them had been dealing with the same problem for months. All of the units in question had received multiple applications of gel bait treatment to no avail, with roaches still being discovered on multiple floors of the building.

A woman on the floor below has lived in Hudson House for four years and said she started seeing the bugs two years ago despite having the gel applied throughout her apartment.

"I'm creeped right out, I couldn't sleep last night," she said with a shiver. "I've seen them everywhere, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in my bedroom ­ they just appear out of nowhere."

She says the attitude she has received after making complaints to the landlord was first disbelief, followed by indifference.

"We're told to just live with them," she says. "I tell (visitors) who come in, if it moves, kill it ­ it's gross."

Yellowknifer photographed an insect captured at Hudson House and sent it to the entomology department at the University of Alberta.

Danny Shpeley, curator of the Strickland Museum of Entomology, said he is frequently contacted about infestations in Edmonton and confirmed the species.

"The longitudinal stripes on the pronotum (a plate-like structure on the insect's thorax) confirm that this immature roach is the German cockroach," he stated in an e-mail.

German cockroaches grow to be 16 millimetres in length and can live for up to 200 days. They are most commonly found in humid areas such as kitchens and bathrooms but will move to other areas if food and moisture are available. Gordon Murray lives in one of the higher up units and says the problem has not been as bad on his floor but said he was skeptical about the effectiveness of spot treating instead of applying the gel throughout the entire building. He specifically referenced a storage locker room in the basement, which Yellowknifer found to be piled with old clothes, broken appliances and cardboard ­ a seemingly perfect home for cockroaches.

"I imagine if bugs can get anywhere in the building, they can get in there and they're worse on the lower floors," Murray said. "If you're not going to (treat) the whole building it's not worth doing any of it Š if they've got a place where they can stay and you don't kill them, that will be a place they can grow from again."

Yellowknifer attempted to reach the landlord, Northern Property REIT, on Wednesday but did not receive a response by press time.

Jeremy Roberts, an environmental health officer with the Department of Health and Social Services, said the GNWT has dealt with cockroach issues in Yellowknife in the past, which typically arrive in someone's furniture or pet food brought from the south. Other problem insects found in Yellowknife apartments in recent years include bed bugs and crickets.

He added in order for treatments to be effective, co-operation is needed from all apartment residents.

"Tenants have to be making sure things are done properly in their units, not removing (the brown gel used to kill cockroaches) and having their place kept clean," he said. "If they've got stuff lying around, if it's a cluttered apartment, then it's going to provide a nesting place for cockroaches." Orkin Pest Control branch manager Doug Wadlow said the brown gel method is the most effective if done properly and throughout the building. If tenants don't comply or try their own treatments, this can slow down the process or negate it completely.

"It all depends on what's being done and whether or not people have cleaned up and sanitized and got rid of that competing food source," he explained, adding he often sees people using chemicals not meant for the insect at hand.

Wadlow also cautioned that some of these over-the-counter products will indeed drive cockroaches away but this is only a temporary solution.

"Using twice as much doesn't mean it's going to work twice as fast," he said. "If you have a liquid or an aerosol, it could repel them, which means they would spread instead of (killing them)."

In a letter to a tenant at Hudson House, Roberts said the situation was being handled.

"The landlord has brought in a professional pest control company," the letter reads.

Tenants had not reported a treatment application by press time.